Hiring a Team Member is not an Exercise in Speed Networking!

Many entrepreneurs treat finding team members like an exercise in speed networking. They take very little time before making a decision that can mean the difference between success and failure in the growth of their business.

Hire Slow, Fire Fast

The best practice in building a team for your business is to follow the adage “hire slow, fire fast.” However the problem is too many do the exact opposite; they hire without any sort of process and then keep the person long past when they should.

Take the time to find the right person; interview several candidates and add testing as part of your process to ensure they have the skills you want. Don’t forget when you have other team members to include them in the hiring process; after all they will be working with this new team member too.

Hire for Personality and Train for Skill

Way too often I see entrepreneurs looking solely at a person’s skillset when they find their team member. They spend a lot of time looking at their resume and asking questions related to previous job experience and the skills they have learned. Yes, skill is important, but there is so much more to finding the right team member than simply skill.

Before you start interviewing know what your ideal candidate looks like; what is their working style, how do they communicate, what core values are important to them, what personality traits would be a good match with yours and your other team members. These are the important questions to ask in an interview!!

Don’t Wait Until the Last Minute

Before things begin to get overwhelming is the perfect time to start looking for your next team member. The problem is most entrepreneurs wait until they are overwhelmed, knee deep in a project with a deadline that is looming before they decide it’s time to bring in a new team member. If you wait too long, you may find yourself working with a person who happens to be available right now rather than the person who is truly your ideal candidate.

Don’t keep waiting and telling yourself you aren’t ready … there are definitely tasks on your To Do List right now that could easily be accomplished by additional team members. By starting your search now and taking your time, you can find the person who is your ideal fit.

Your perfect team member is out there waiting for you to find them. Just remember even if you have had a bad experience with a previous team member or you are “gun shy” because you have heard a horror story from a friend or colleague, there are so many more happy stories. More than I hear about the bad experiences I hear “I couldn’t imagine my business without my team” and “why did I wait so long to hire someone?”